Mimi

I didn't want to drop nor put this on hold especially since there's another story in here, but this book put me in a reading slump that's starting to piss me off. I don't like Minami, I don't care about the story, don't care about the couple, and really can't stand the art style. All of this doesn't make me want to continue, but I just dropped the manga before last and I don't want to do that again so soon.

The gang stuff is whatever. I didn't care for it but I also didn't really mind it, it wasn't the main part of the book so I can deal. What really made this difficult for me (besides the art) was just Minami himself. He's moving way too fast for Sakurada who's obviously trying to become more comfortable with being with a guy. Hell, in a relationship in general, to be honest. But it doesn't read like Minami's is considering that most of the time. It's kind of annoying and disgusting, really not making me like Minami at all. I also thought that their first conflict was just fucking stupid.

I don't know, even though this is going on hold, I may just end up dropping it. This worries me because I have a couple more manga from this author on my TBR that I'm now not eager to get to.

Update: Realized that I'm never coming back to this.

Story 1: I liked this one even though I was a bit confused at the beginning. I didn't really get why Kou kept rejecting Daisuke even though it was sort of explained. It felt more like a why he said yes now instead of before, but it was still cute to see them try to work with each other. I added an extra star because they tried to “settle it in smash” who topped.. and then they never did and fell asleep.

Man, if only we had more time to send with them. Maybe, like, one more chapter specifically after this one that would show them being more of a couple instead of the last bonus chapter just telling us that they got closer... If only.

Story 2: When they showed that Michihiko was 23 I went “the other guy better not be 19 or I'm skipping"... 23 and 19 is a big age gap for me but at least they wouldn't’ve been fucking family! Or at least I hope they would’ve been fucking family. I didn’t stay, I skipped it immediately.

Story 3: I am so tired of this book. This story has an age gap that’s kind of uncomfortable at the start but only if you’re paying attention because age gaps are a sensitive subject for you. Koshika is most likely 19 when meeting Sousuke who’s an older man, at least 25+. He clearly has a crush on Sousuke, but what ew’d me out was Sousuke flirting with him. Yes, he could’ve been 20 but maybe you shouldn’t be vague about ages when one of them is in high school. The sad part is they meet years later and the rest of their story is so cute. They are so cute. But then they brought up how Sousuke knew and Koshika’s feelings and still flirted made me want to throw up. Can we get back to the first story, please?

Story 4: This book should've been about story 1 for 3 chapters and story 4 for 2 chapters. Forget chapters 2 and 3. Skip them. Story 4 is super cute and I wish it had more to its story because it ended way too soon. It made me remember that the art style in this is so good. I loved the way Miyamoto looked in general and thought Daisuke’s eyes were cool.

... I’m so confused on this one. Kinda... Sorta?

I'm pretty sure I forgot that was tagged as mature, but I didn't think that this was going to have this many sex scenes. It kind of ruined the actual story for me even though half of the plot was about Keppei's issues revolving around having sex with Keita. There are times in this manga that didn't need a sex scene, times when serious talking about Keppei's embarrassment and Keita's trauma would've been better... But instead, they fucked.

It wasn’t like we didn’t get to see them talk about each other’s problems, it just wasn't enough and you could tell the author really wanted to put a sex scene in every chapter. There's also the fact that some of those scenes were with each other's 18yd selves and I hated that. It's just my age gape disgust that got in the way at times.

This story was both really cute and very frustrating for me. I really loved the characters and I liked the premise but the time we spent reading them fuck felt wasted. On top of how it ended in six chapters, it was difficult for me to be happy about the proposal with the way chapter six went.

I'm sorry but I was really bored during the main story. I don't know, the story felt kind of stale but also cute. I just couldn't bring myself to care about either of them as much as I wanted to that when their conflict happened I didn't feel anything. It wasn't a bad story, I just didn't care.

Now as for the 2nd story, I was giddy for more of Minakami. I remember thinking to myself “man, I really like the design of the cafe owner. I really want to see more of them". But they just had to ruin it by the college guy be 19. Ugh. It's a cute story but they could've made him at least 24? Even before finding out his age I couldn't stop thinking how I would've loved it more of it was about him and the bartender from the place Suzuki worked at instead because I need more mature couples in my life. So that kind of sucked seeing that Isaki was under 20. And then they hit me with a joke like “What kind of useless adult am I, getting involved with a kid" like, ew!? Like, ew? Like, ew.

Something I do like, though, was the way this author draws mouths and eyes. Specifically their smiles, though. It makes me think of how fixated I was with another author, Kei Sumiya, who’s smiles during some genuine moments are so radiant, shiny, blinding, and warm. The :3 smiles Kure does makes me smile, I love it. It’s like when you’re talking to someone who understands the importance of emoticons and put shit like :) and -A- and (^u^) at the end of their text. I’m in love. I’m in love with the way Kure draws smiles.

... Ok, but why didn't your dad just teach you the damn recipe?

Anyway, this was fine. Just fine. But just fine in a more positive way than a low 3 “just fine". I thought Roy and Kotaro were cute together, I almost cried seeing them try to do a high five but Kotaro didn't have his glasses on so they missed and I loved everything about that bit. My only problem was how the dialogue flowed. Something about the dialogue felt off, making me feel like I was missing context. The number of times I've said “why bring that up out of nowhere" or “who asked" was a lot.

The way they brought up certain topics felt forced like they were being told their next line off-screen while also being told to stay on track. There was a part where Masuda came by to pick up the order list and, without being promoted, brought up Kotaro was down at the cafe, kicking off the conflict. That's just one of three parts that stood out to me like that, It didn't make sense for him to bring that up the way he did because it didn't feel natural to the conversation. It came off as gossip to start something for no reason, so many conversations played out that way in this story. When people talked it either felt like a tonal whiplash or or “who asked" moment.

I couldn’t. I straight couldn’t do this. This is probably a really cute story, Tajima and Koga (Kouga? I’ve seen both) are probably super cute together. In fact, I don’t think the story itself is bad, so I don’t want to give it such a low rating. However, my enjoyment was severely severed by Koga having a crush on his step-brother and I tried so hard to overlook it because that’s not the couple we’re following, it isn’t about them.

But I know how this goes.

We’re going to keep bringing up how Koga’s feelings. Even if it becomes less and less of a thing, it’s going to be talked about throughout the book, it’s going to be a conflict or a topic of discussion as he and Tajima become closer, it’s going to make me scream and throw up if I have to keep reading that.

Though I wasn’t that invested in them and I thought the first chapter was kind of boring, I was a tiny bit interested in where this would go after chapter two... and then chapter three started and I just couldn’t do it.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA so anyway, this book gave me a migraine because of how much dread I've felt reading it. It’s been a very long time since I've read something this heavy in atmosphere, and yet, it still felt different than something like CUT or Ito-san. In the middle of chapter two I needed to sit the book down and take a nap after about an hour because I was already feeling so anxious Alan that it made me fucking tired. I’ve been looking for exactly this feeling for months! The hurt/comfort here was like Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas morning. I was bawling my eyes out, I was fucking miserable caring so hard about two fictional characters! I was having the time of my life reading this.

One of my main setbacks, though, was the high levels of religious preaching coming from ... everywhere. I get it, it was his upbringing and a huge part of the story. I think it's because my Baptist upbringing was never a negative one and I just have to remember that not everyone’s religious experience is that fortunate.

The other thing was the age gap situation. It's very well known that Alan is 17 when they first met. Hayden's, however, is very rocky. He's either between 18 (turning 19 that year) to 21 and the thought that he was 19 or 20 looking at Alan that way bothers me a little more than the religious talk. That being said, 17 was the legal age in Texas in 1999... Plus, it started in winter and Alan most likely have been 18 for some months by the time any romance started between them. Also, the little note at the end talking about how everyone was legally above age is funny to me because I’ve never seen that disclaimer at the end of a BL before. It still just felt weird to me, though.

I felt like I had to reorganize my thoughts on this story. This was a less-than-average read for me sometimes. I really like the almost family-like dynamic between Maggie, Al, Ned, and Mary, they had this vibe of “we’ve been friends since first grade, we grew up together” and I loved that. I loved that Maggie knew about Ned’s feelings for Al and was here for them, I loved that they all were here for Maggie towards the end of the book. I loved the tension the book had at times! There are a lot of things about the stories and the characters and the backstory that interest me so much.

But there was also something... something that held this back for me. I thought the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star bit was sweet in the context of what it was for until the author wanted me to take this song seriously and then it just felt corny. Even though I grew to enjoy their friendship, starting with Al flirting with both Maggie and Ned felt weird to me. It's just this "siblings who flirt with the same person and that person flirts with them both" is not my cup of coffee, to be honest. Chapter four felt kind of confusing to me the way it jumped around in the timeline.

I just find it funny that some of the small things got to me enough because of how mundane and still this story was. There was this gloomy and heavy atmosphere that was almost perfect. I love the hurt. The comfort is cute. But some of the comedy made me roll my eyes and I will never get over how they tried to make Twinkle Twinkle Little Star important.

It started off feeling like a bunch of nothing until it got to the point where they had to pretend not to know each other for work because no one knew about their relationship... That killed me to read because it's not like y'all can't be friendly and talk sometimes. Just don't be flirty with each other! That's my only annoyance with this story and it's only set up that way for the bigger conflict. A base that wasn't needed, it was just there to piggyback off the already dumb conflict that was there because just wouldn’t interact with each other as "just friends".

So this whole book has this annoying underlying plot with a stupider plot on top of it. Shame because the two main characters are pretty cute together.

A very slow start for me, I was getting bored up until chapter three. Them fighting and the aftermath of Shuu realizing things actually had me invested. I would honestly like a second book about them in there relationship.

Story 1: What?

Story 2: What the fuck?

I really like the atmosphere but the poor translation and comprehension of what was going on left me so confused. The side story, I just didn't really like that one at all.

This was just the most aggressive "fine" I've read recently. But I also had a problem picking a full star/number rating for the sites that don't do halves, like, three felt too low but four felt too generous.

It wasn't really the family dynamic I thought it would be and the only thing that did get on my nerves was the constant apologizing from the two. But even that didn't bother me too bad? I do wish the story revolved around them cooking together more rather than spending one day on it and the rest of the story being about misunderstanding after misunderstanding. Then there's the "we must have sex to be in a real relationship" thing BL authors like to write and that I fucking hate...

Yeah, I think "fine" is probably fine.

The main story was pretty cute as a whole. Wasn't on board with how the relationship started, however, the part in the bathroom was basically harassment. That was kinda weird soured the plot in an otherwise cute story with a cute couple and cute child living a cute family life together.

As for the short story, I'm not too sure how I feel about that. Despite it being a short story, it ended up dragging out its plot as if it was gearing up for another chapter or sequel spin-off... that never happened. The characters were fine, but it ended too abruptly for that ending they were trying to do on top of how I really didn't care about either of them by the end.

The relationship dynamic here is very similar to the couple in Long Period. Wataru has been in love with his friend for years but has kept it to himself despite all the obvious signs Minato was giving that he loved him back. It does feel a little different in that Minato is and has been even more oblivious about his feelings so now we're spending the whole book waiting for Wataru to stop being stubborn and see that.

While I was annoyed by the obliviousness in Long Period, I think I'm less annoyed about it here because it only lasted a chapter and didn't string me along for two whole fucking books. There's still a hint of "are we really gonna have this song and dance?" because Minato was not subtle at all in high school about his interest. It's just not as bad here since it's we're not reading about Wataru being an idiot. We're reading about him being stubborn to preserve his friendship based on past romantic experiences. I love slow burns but ignoring the signs for two books and then act all surprised when you do find out they like you back was definitely my limit. So I'm glad this is more about seeing them be cute together and Wataru slowly taking Minato seriously after chapter three.

Ya know what I did find much more annoying, though. Chapter two page 26. "I'm grown up now" "I'm the grown up Wataru" The hell are you, 15? What the fuck is this dialogue right now?

Bonus points for Lil' Boss. We respect Lil' Boss in this house.

That one person who was like Mishima deserved so much better followed by three throwing up emojis, I felt you. Your energy was so powerful and I felt you.

What do you mean we were going to have a "proper conversation", do absolutely nothing, and then have a sex scene...? What do you mean? Don't put emotions in front of my face like keys and then throw the keys out the window for a sex scene! Sure, they finally did talk but it should've been at the end of chapter two not whatever the hell that was.

On top of that, Hozumi kind of rubbed me the wrong allowing Mishima to take on some of that blame. To recap: Hozumi broke up with him so he wouldn't be sad when he moved off the island for college but did not properly explain that. He comes back after seven years to an angry Mishima and pesters him until he eventually gives up and spend time together. To which Hozumi takes advantage of the situation and forces himself on Mishima instead of having that conversation that we were promised, that they should've had and didn't happen until chapter three. This left Mishima frustrated and confused to the point where he didn't attend to the lighthouse causing the boat Hozumi was working on to get into a little accident and him falling off. After that, it all became his fault in Mishima's head. Even the high school stuff?? He already feels like he doesn't have his own backbone to say "no" or "let's wait" because of "those eyes" (I'm rolling mine), I'm just not here for that. I'm not ok with the person who has every reason to raise hell taking the blame and it's seen as a good thing. It's not like Hozumi doesn't blame himself for the shit he's done but Mishima shouldn't be blaming himself for anything. Even the lighthouse incident. Not after the night before.

Also... What thought processes did Hozumi's brother have to come out for him to their parents when previously he expressed being nervous about?? You don't do that. You don't come out for someone else no matter how understanding anyone is. I don't know, fiction is fiction but Jesus to fucking Christ.

Other than all of that, along with the art style not being my favorite to look at, this was just ok which I'm very sad about because the bonus chapter was everything to me. If this was just their high school year together followed by the breakup and a volume two with a better get back together story, peak 4 stars.

Lol, so, like remember when I said in the first volume that nothing about this really pissed me off that much and that the only mildly annoying thing was how Yuusei refused to acknowledge that Itsuki likes him back? That is the only conflict in this book... It is the entire plot... of volume 2.

Which means. It has gotten. 1,000% more annoying.

I did like how it ended but having Yuusei be super oblivious to Itsuki literally holding up signs that say "I LIKE YOU, TOO! KISS ME YOU IDIOT" and then Yuusei seeing that and going "Interesting. I can't tell him I'm in love with him, though. Better keep my distance" made me so angry because I very much think that's a bad way to do a slow burn. Especially if you're gonna have it expand over two volumes. You’ve done this before, Nagisa. But better! Literally, My Summer of You’s slow burn was basically this BUT BETTER. Volume one could’ve ended the way volume two did but instead of them being all happy and dating and then it ends, volume two could’ve been about them dating but Yuusei’s still a bit insecure about things. He’s been in his head for so long that it’ll take a little while for him to see that Itsuki really does love him, has loved him for years with Itsuki’s help.

But it had a pretty cute ending similar to Two Lions in a way so we’re all just buddy-buddy, aren’t we, Nagisa.

I can't express to you how "no thoughts, head empty" this book left me. I mean, I guess it hasn’t done anything to piss me off but it also hasn’t done anything to make me care. Kind of like I was just moving with the pages mindlessly.

Maybe the way Yuusei kept Itsuki at longer than arm's length for as long as he did got annoying pretty fast. But, like, I know Nagisa. She loves her some childhood friends to lovers slow burn yerning high school romance so I knew what I was getting into and I think that's why I'm not that pissed over it... Even though Itsuki's pretty fucking obvious with how he feels.

More of same feelings I had from the first book. But after reading both of these books I'm just still kind of disappointed... The art's cute. Cocomi knows how to draw some really cute art. The more softer, cute moments in the story were very adorable. But what made this drag for me and had me praying for it to be done after chapter three was just the conflicts.

The conflicts were just kind of dumb to me and it all just came down to not communicating (shocker). However, there was a story reason why no one wanted to communicate which I can kind of tip my hat to, but still very annoying to read 17 times. I did like the end. I thought the end was cute. Didn't make me cry or anything but still a cute ending chapter.

me, someone with mental health issues, low self-esteem, and deals with self-worth: Why is everyone so mean to Mitsuomi...

Ok, to be honest... I wasn't expecting "grumpy/sunshine". I haven't read the tags for this in a while and, in my mind, I was going into it now thinking "depressed/puppy-like". I had to rethink my approach to this now.

With that new dynamic in mind, I this story was just alright. Nothing really pissed me off, nothing happened that would've made me angry. But nothing really hit me where I wanted it to either. I wanted to be much more interested in this than I ended up being. I can see the cute, the sad, but I didn't feel what the author wanted me to feel and I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't moving enough for me. I'm still reading the sequel and I'm still buying these physically.

Volume 2 really set me off, huh.

I am so annoyed by everyone in this damn book. For starters; Kanade and Mashiro are grown ass men acting like dumb ass 11th graders going out for the first time with the added layer of them being closeted. On one hand, could’ve been adorable. They kind of picked up where they sort of left off but this time they’re actually dating. But on the hand we got, it was just annoying conflict after conflict with no attempts to communicate to each other and I fucking hated it.

I think what annoyed me the most about how they acted as adults was because when we got flashbacks of them in high school all their actions and behaviors made sense because they were teenagers. It's really cute and it fits. Like, them at the cafe place almost made me cry. These same behaviors that they're still showing now that they're dating as adults are not cute. It's annoying. It's not cute to see Kanade blame himself for telling Mashiro to stop because he was being forceful and scary. It's not cute to see Mashiro push away his mother, who's been mentally ill and in need of help for years, as well as not communicating on anything.

Speaking of Mashiro’s mother, I don't really like the way she's written. Not specifically her but the role the author wanted her to play. She's written as "the villain", an obstacle between Kanade and Mashiro when really this lady is mentally unwell and has been needing professional help for years. Her husband passed, she became super dependent and attached to her son, her romantic relationships have been very messy and unhealthy which makes her more attached and dependent on Misharo. The grandmother is the only person with any sense but still no one tried to get her any help? I'm very annoyed with how the sorry has treated her so far the most.

Man, I hate when BL authors forget that there are other letters in LGBT than just L and G.

I have nothing to say about this absolute mid-ass story. This volume one was fine. Maybe less than fine but nothing that actually pissed me off (yet). That being said, it's still a 4.5 out of 10 because I was promised sad and it's giving me pathetic.

Why couldn't this have just been a cute & heart-gripping story about two friends mending their friendship and trying to be lovers? Why did this have to be littered with sexual harassment for no reason, conflicts and BL tropes straight out of 2010? What the fuck was chapter three, even? I wanted to really like this, man...

The even sadder part is, when it's just about Rui and Roku being friends again and adorable together it’s actually really cute to read! There are a lot of really soft moments in this but it’s the conflicts that frustrated me because they felt forced. Rui thinking that Roku is cheating on him pissed me off the most because if his brain wasn't so gender-locked I would've understood a little bit when he found those feminine clothes, but he got all worked up over mugs with hearts on them. Like, dude, shut the fuck up and chill. I've been going from "aww this is cute" to "I'm going to break some windows" and it's not been fun.

Art's cute, though.

It's been a while and I didn't log this one at all in my notes app like I normally do, so I can't really go in-depth on why I'm dropping this like I kind of want to.

All I can remember is that I didn't care about both of our main characters. I also don't like the "I'm rude as fuck to you because I think teasing you is cute" kind of character personality, it made me not want to root for their relationship.

As for the story itself; it was just “fine”. I wasn't that invested in them but they also didn't bother me as much as the couple from Living With Him (mostly) and My Home, Your One-Room did. But the unnecessary conflict at the end was pretty dumb. I felt there could’ve been a buildup of them trying to be together and transitioning their friends-with-benefits relationship over to official couple status that Shunpie wanted. Instead, we got Shunpie being in his own head, not listening to Kota even when Kota said he wanted to go out with him, and lack of communication mainly from Shunpie.

I wasn’t too in love with how standoff-ish Shunpie was, but also the possessive lover thing he showed towards Kota and Kota basically saying he'll give up his sense of self, his own person, to be with Shunpie. It's weird, I hate it... Maybe the couple from My Home, Your One-Room was better... I do plan on reading volume two at some point.

Very cute but also very average in terms of story. As much as I loved this family of Yuu, Kei, and Ren I felt like it wasn't as emotional as I hoped it was going to be. My most invested parts were Yuu and his conflict with being a child who has no time to BE a child because of his job as an actor as well as not being able to spend time with his mother, the only parent he has right now, who is a CEO. With Kei being his parental guardian and now Ren who’s fulfilling a similar role, when it came down to them doing the mundane it was very cute and made me sad. I do wish there was more emotion put in the scene where Yuu got to talk to his mom about how he felt, it was still nice... I wanted her to cry but it was still nice.

The only time I felt bored was when we took time away from Yuu, away from the three of them learning about each other more, whenever we cut to Kei and Ren's acting job conflicts. It was boring to me and some explanations were a bit dumb because it just felt like “rich people” problems and, Lord, did I not care. It wasn't even about anything interesting either. One had a fear of and felt jealous over being surpassed by other child actors while the other was dealing with only being seen as the superhero character he played. It's fine but also I'm bored. There were also parts where they would talk about growing as people or talking about Yuu's conflicts only to cut away to their industry problems and I just rolled my eyes.

Another small thing that got to me was the progression of the confession. A part of me felt like it was rushed, just a little bit forced and that's probably because we're at the last chapter so it felt like we had to bring it up now. It was fine but I do wish we got that confession earlier so we got that time to see them also grow as a couple. Lastly, there was so much apologizing. Everyone was overly apologetic about everything, like, girl, it’s ok.